Getting your home organized can seem like an overwhelming task, especially if your entire house is out of order. But the most important step is the first one: To begin at the beginning. The beginning is your plan to get it done. A big daunting task can be much easier if you break it down into manageable parts and that’s exactly how you’ll get organized: One room at a time or even one section of one room at a time. Here is how to go about designing and implementing a plan to get it done.

Set your Priorities
A good method is to start with the kitchen, then move on to the living or family room (whichever is worse), then the dining room and finally the bedrooms. You can work on other rooms in between if that makes sense for the way you use the rooms in your home. Starting with the kitchen is a good idea because it is the most used room of the house and needs to be organized and clean to be functional. Some people advise starting with the attic, basement or garage because as you clear out unnecessary items from these spaces, you gain storage space for items that you’ll need to keep when you organize the rest of your home.

Prioritize rooms in a way that makes sense for the current state of your house.

Budget your Time
Once you have your priorities in order, plan how you will implement your plan. Will you work one or two hours each evening plus five hours every Saturday? Budget your time in a way that is realistic for your schedule and don’t sabotage yourself by scheduling every single minute of spare time working on organizational tasks. If you do, you’ll get burned out in a hurry and one year from now you’ll be no better off than you are today. Give yourself some downtime as a reward for your efforts and to enjoy your life.

Sort and Deal Right Away
Sort every room, file cabinet, closet, etc. into three piles: Keep, Donate and Trash. Unless you have a garage sale already scheduled, don’t waste time and effort on items to sell; the money you make is rarely worth the time and effort and keeping things for a garage sale will make you hold on to things rather than getting them out of your house. If an item is really worth something, take it to a resale shop today.

As soon as a room is separated by piles, deal with the piles immediately. Take the trash to the curb or dumpster, take the boxes of donated stuff to the church, and organize and put away the items to be kept. The sooner things are out of sight, the less likely it is that they will take up space in another room of your home.

Organizing what you Keep
Deciding what to keep and how to keep it can be tricky. First, you shouldn’t keep things just because you might need them “someday”. If clothes don’t fit, donate or trash them. If you have 5 blenders, donate 3. Go through papers once and sort them into file folders as needed and then into a filing cabinet. Remember that in this day and age you can get electronic statements from any financial institution as well as from credit cards, department stores, utility companies, etc. So there really is no reason to keep more than one year’s worth of bills. And for most people, 3-5 years worth of tax statements is adequate.

As you get one room organized, you’ll be inspired to keep going. You’ll be amazed at how wonderful it is to find just what you need without having to sort through piles of stuff to find it. Better yet, you’ll be inspired to maintain good organizational habits by just spending 15-30 minutes a day organizing and putting things away.

Author Bio: Jessica Ackerman from WallDecorandHomeAccents.com generously shares everything she knows about modern metal art sculptures and decorative music and dance statues.

Category: Home Management
Keywords: wallpaper, floor, bathroom, paint, living room, carpet, home office, bedroom, windows, door